He managed to handle the difficult questions like those regarding a hung parliament deftly I thought, rightly insisting that it is up to the electorate to decide what sort of a parliament to deliver and that the Lib Dems will fight for their key principles in any such situation. Frankly, that is exactly what the people voting for us would expect.
He also managed to get in plenty of references to the good policies that we have. There will be many more people after last night who are now familiar with them who were not before. I was especially pleased that Paxman tried to go after him on the £10,000 tax threshold. The questioning was along the lines of the fact that "only" £1.5 billion of the £17 billion would go to the very lowest earners. That just gave Clegg the opportunity to discuss in more detail just how many people the change would help and exactly how.
Yesterday, neither Brown nor Cameron had confirmed that they would also face Paxman. I now hear that they appear to have done so following last night's interview. Who would have thought that Clegg would be setting the agenda in this way within a week of the election having been called?
And if he can perform as well as he did last night during the leader debates starting this Thursday then bring it on!
I thought Paxo was his usual obnoxious self when Clegg tried to explain that there was a huge difference between protecting 'frontline' health services and cutting back the colossal waste in the NHS bureaucracy.
ReplyDeleteBut then again, Paxo had him bang to rights with the £10,000 personal allowance - it appears that the higher allowance only applies to income tax and not to National Insurance as well so it is only a teeny-tiny step in the right direction.
But then again, again, Clegg made a fair point about there not just being poor kids in East London - they are all over the country.